Art Deco (c.1925-40)

DESIGN STYLES and
MOVEMENTS
For details of late 19th-century and
early 20th century styles of art and
design, see: Modern Art Movements.

EVOLUTION
OF VISUAL ART
For details of art movements
and styles, see: History of Art.
For the chronology and dates
of key events in the evolution
of visual arts around the world
see: History of Art Timeline.

ARTISTS SINCE 1800
For details of the best modern
painters, since 1800, see:Famous painters.

Exemplified by the geometric designs of
famous New York buildings such as the Chrysler Building and Rockefeller
Centre, Art Deco was the most fashionable international design movement
in modern art from 1925 until the 1940s.

The art deco style, which above all reflected
modern technology, was characterized by smooth lines, geometric shapes,
streamlined forms and bright, sometimes garish colours. Initially a luxury
style (a reaction against the austerity imposed by World War I) employing
costly materials like silver, crystal, ivory, jade and lacquer, after
the Depression it also used cheaper and mass-produced materials like chrome,
plastics, and other industrial items catering to the growing middle class
taste for a design style that was elegant, glamorous and functional.

The word art deco derives from the 1925
Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes,
held in Paris. The show was organized by an association of French artists
known as, La Societe des Artistes Decorateurs (society of decorator
artists), led by its founders Hector
Guimard (1867-1942), Eugene Grasset, Raoul Lachenal, Paul Follot,
Maurice Dufrene, and Emile Decour, some of whom were previously involved
in Art Nouveau. Note however that the term Art Deco was not widely used
until popularized by the art historian and critic Bevis Hillier in her
book Art Deco of the 20s and 30s (1968).

History

Art Deco owed something to several of the
major art styles of the early 20th century. These formative influences
include the geometric forms of Cubism (note:
Art Deco has been called "Cubism Tamed"), the machine-style
forms of Constructivism and Futurism,
and the unifying approach of Art Nouveau. Its highly intense colours may
have stemmed from Parisian Fauvism. Art Deco
borrowed also from Aztec and Egyptian
art, as well as from Classical Antiquity. Unlike its earlier counterpart
Art Nouveau, however, Art Deco had no philosophical basis - it was purely
decorative.

The Art Deco style, adopted by architects
and designers around the world, spanned the "Roaring Twenties",
the Great Depression of the early 1930s, and the years leading up to the
Second World War. It suffered a decline in popularity during the late
30s and early 40s, when it began to be seen as too gaudy and ostentatious
for wartime austerity, after which it quickly fell out of fashion. The
first resurgence of interest in Art Deco occurred in the 1960s - coincident
with the movement's affect on Pop Art - and then again in the 1980s, in
line with growing interest in graphic design. The style appeared in a
number of jewellery and fashion ads.

Art Deco Characteristics,
Materials

Employing new building materials that were
manipulated into stepped, radiating styles that contrasted sharply with
the fluid motifs of Art Nouveau, Art Deco architecture represented scientific
progress, and the consequent rise of commerce, technology, and speed.
This, together with its image as a modern, opulent style, made Art Deco
designs especially suitable for the interiors of cinemas, ocean liners
such as the Queen Mary, and the architecture of train stations across
the United States. It endured throughout the Depression due to the practicality
and simplicity of its design, and its suggestion of better times ahead.

The structure of Art Deco is founded on
mathematical geometric shapes which drew equally on Greco-Roman Classicism,
the faceted architectural forms of Babylon, Assyria, Ancient Egypt, and
Aztec Mexico - notably their ziggurats, pyramids
and other monumental structures - and Machine Age streamline designs from
aviation, the radio, and the skyscraper. In particular, Art Deco designs
are characterized by trapezoidal, zigzagged, and triangular shapes, chevron
patterns, stepped forms, sweeping curves and sunburst motifs - the latter
being visible in a number of separate applications, including: shoes,
car radiator grilles, the Radio City Music Hall auditorium, and the spire
of the William van Alen Chrysler Building (1928-30) in New York.

New materials were also much in evidence,
such as aluminum, stainless steel, plastics, lacquer and inlaid wood.
And while continuing the use of high quality Art Nouveau materials, such
as moulded glass, horn, and ivory, Art Deco also introduced exotic items
like shark-skin, and zebra-skin.

Applications

Art Deco styling was most common in architecture,
interior design, poster art, furniture,
jewellery, textiles, fashion and industrial design, although it was also
applied to the visual arts such as painting, and graphics. In architecture,
the Art Deco look signalled something of a return to the symmetry and
simplicity of Neoclassicism, but without its classical regularity. The
fact that Art Deco architectural designs were so enthusiastically adopted
by architects in countries as diverse as the United Kingdom, Spain, Cuba,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Argentina, Romania, Australia, New Zealand,
India and Brazil, says much for the style's novel monumentality.

Examples
of Art Deco Architecture

Many cities with building projects completed
during the period 1927-1935 used Art Deco design plans, of which the following
is a short selection. For more information, see: American
Architecture (1600-present), and for a list of top designers, see:
American Architects
(1700-2000).

- Chanin Building (1927-9) by Sloan &
Robertson.
- The Chrysler Building (1928-30) by William van Alen.
- The Empire State Building (1929-31) by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon.
- McGraw-Hill Building (1929-30) by Raymond Hood.
- News Building (1929-30) by Raymond Hood with John Mead Howells.
- Rockefeller Center (1932-9) by Reinhard, Hofmeister, Harrison &
Macmurray.

Other famous Art Deco buildings in New
York include the Radio City Music Hall, and the Midland Grand Hotel.

In Texas, Art Deco is exemplified
in Houston by such buildings as the Houston City Hall, the JP Morgan Chase
Building and the 1940 Air Terminal Museum, while in Beaumont, the Jefferson
County Courthouse (completed 1931), is one of the few Art Deco buildings
still standing.

In Missouri, the best example of
the Great Depression and its effect on Art Deco construction is the Kansas
City Power and Light Building (completed 1931). Other examples in Kansas
City include the Municipal Auditorium, the Jackson County Courthouse,
and City Hall.

In Ohio, the Cincinnati Union Terminal,
an Art Deco style passenger railroad station (completed 1933) is now the
Cincinnati Museum Center, which attracts more than one million visitors
per year.

In Florida, the city of Miami is
home to countless examples of Art Deco style buildings.

Art Deco in Cuba
Many of the finest surviving examples of Art Deco architecture can be
seen in Havana, Cuba. Perhaps the best is the Bacardi Building.

Art Deco in South America
In Brazil, Art Deco designs are prevalent in Goiania and cities like Cipo
(Bahia), Irai (Rio Grande do Sul) and Rio de Janeiro, while Montevideo,
Uruguay, is home to the iconic Palacio Salvo (completed 1929), formerly
South America's tallest building.

Art Deco in Britain
UK Examples include the famous East Stand facade at Highbury, the former
Arsenal Stadium. The London Underground also has numerous examples of
Art Deco architecture, as do London Hotels such as the Strand Palace Hotel.

Art Deco in India
The city of Mumbai in India has the second largest number of Art Deco
buildings in the world after Miami. One of the finest is the New India
Assurance Building (completed 1936).

Art Deco in China
The historical Chinese port of Shanghai is home to over fifty Art Deco
buildings, the majority designed by Hungarian architect Laszlo Hudec.

Art Deco in Indonesia
This country has one of the largest remaining collections of 1920s Art
Deco buildings in the world. They include the Savoy Homann Hotel (completed
1939), by architects Thomas Karsten, Henri Maclaine-Pont, J Gerber and
C.P.W. Schoemaker; the Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij building (now
Museum Bank Mandiri, completed 1929), by architects J de Bryun, AP Smiths,
and C Van de Linde, and the Jakarta Kota Station (completed 1929) by architects
Frans Johan Louwrens and Ghijsels.

Art Deco in Australia
A relatively large number of buildings throughout Australia were constructed
in the art deco style. In Melbourne for instance, art deco buildings include
the Century Building, Yule House, Mitchell House, Manchester Unity building,
and Myer Emporium Mural Hall. In Sydney, there is the ANZAC War Memorial,
the Mutual Life and Citizen's Building, the Dental Hospital of Sydney,
Archibald Fountain, and Minerva Theatre.

Art Deco Visual
Arts - Famous Artists

Although the term Art Deco is rarely applied
to painting or sculpture, the style is visible in the streamlined forms
of certain 20th century painters
from the inter-war period. Such artists include, the painter Tamara
de Lempicka (born Tamara Gorska) (1898-1980) - see her oil painting
The Musician (1929), and her Self-Portrait in a Green Bugatti
(1925); and the sculptor Paul Manship (1885-1966) - see his gilded
bronze sculpture Prometheus (1933, Rockefeller Center Plaza). The Ukrainian-born
French poster artist Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron (1901-68), known
as Cassandre, was the top Art Deco graphic artist, who won the
Grand Prix for poster design at the 1925 Paris Expo. For other designers,
see: History of Poster Art.

Similar to Art Nouveau, and as a style
which sought to inspire all forms of arts and crafts, Art Deco has influenced
numerous other design styles and movements since its initial decline in
the early 1940s. It has had a marked influence on contemporary
art and design.